The field of computer security has become increasingly important and complicated in today's society. Computer network environments are configured for virtually every enterprise or organization, typically with multiple interconnected computers (e.g., end user computers, laptops, servers, printing devices, etc.). In many such enterprises, Information Technology (IT) administrators may be tasked with maintenance and control of the network environment, including executable software files (e.g., web application files) on hosts, servers, and other network computers. As the number of executable software files in a network environment increases, the ability to control, maintain, and remediate these files efficiently can become more difficult. Furthermore, computer and communications networks today encompass mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and the like, which allow users to download and install applications on these devices quickly and with minimal oversight. Thus, innovative tools are needed to assist IT administrators in the effective control and management of applications on mobile devices within computer and communication network environments. Such tools may include tools related to a security monitoring agent for FPGA in-memory controllers.
Malicious software may attempt to obtain unauthorized access to a computing device by exploiting physical characteristics of the computing device. As an example, a class of attacks known as rowhammer may attempt to gain unauthorized access using specially crafted memory transaction patterns. These memory transaction patterns are crafted to access memory in a specific manner, which by itself is permitted. However, in a rowhammer attack, these memory access are rapidly repeated, for example, “hammering” a specific memory row, causing one or more bits of memory in a nearby row to flip and allowing access to a privileged portion of memory. Consequently, there is a need for an effective method for monitoring and mitigating memory-based exploits, such as a security monitoring agent for FPGA in-memory controllers.